The Expedition to Punt

By Peter Tyson

Posted 12.01.09

NOVA

In the 15th century B.C., the Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut, a woman who ruled as a king, launched a fabled expedition to a far-away land known as Punt, later recording the journey in a stone bas-relief. In this interactive, use a detailed line drawing of the bas-relief to follow the Punt expedition from start to finish.

Follow an Egyptian pharaoh's voyage to the fabled Land of Punt, as chronicled in an ancient wall carving.

Note: Hieroglyphic translations and details of the expedition drawn from "The Land of Punt," by Kenneth A. Kitchen, in The Archeology of Africa: Food, Metals, and Towns, edited by Thurston Shaw et al (Routledge, 1993). Secondary source: The Temple of Deir el Bahari, a six-volume work published in 1894 by the Swiss Egyptologist Edouard Naville.

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